"A new chiropractic adjusting technique that provides a unique and effective y-axis adjustment.”
Interview with Dr. Gregory Johnson
by The American Chiropractor
You may have run across one of his videos on youtube. Dr. Greg Johnson (G.J), the inventor of the trademarked, Ring Dinger® adjustment, asserts that this chiropractic adjustment is the perfection of adjusting the spine on the Y-axis. You’ve probably seen it performed before, but never with this level of control, all while utilizing his specialized equipment. As patients and chiropractors in training receive this Y-axis adjustment for the first time, you’ll frequently hear a bell ring, as Dr. Johnson remarks “Double Dinger” as the patient exhales in relief or even as a reaction to the level of movement the correction has caused to occur in the spine. This month, The American Chiropractor (TAC) caught up with Dr. Johnson to talk to him about his background, mentors, and chiropractic formation. Read on to learn about some of the things that have led to his almost 500,000 youtube subscribers fan base.
TAC: What school did you attend?
G.J: I went to Southern Illinois University for my undergraduate pre-med/chiropractic education, and I graduated cum laude from Palmer College of Chiropractic Davenport Campus in June 1981.
TAC: Can you talk about your martial arts background?
G.J: I started tae kwon do/chung do kwan in my freshman year of high school (1972) at Wabash Valley Junior College in Mt. Carmel, Illinois, and I got my black belt in 1977 in Madison, Wisconsin. My martial arts training has made me a better chiropractor by focusing forces precisely during the delivery of my adjustments, safe control of movement, self-discipline and the martial arts mentality of self-awareness, and tuning into my mind-body connections as well as training patients to do the same. I still use my martial arts techniques in my adjustment procedures, delivering high-velocity, low-amplitude adjustments on the X, Y, and Z-axes, moving the joints through their maximum range of motion to the anatomical integrity of the ligaments surrounding the joints of the spine and extremities. Knowing how far a joint can move into its maximum range of motion within the anatomical integrity of the ligaments/joint capsule without injuring the ligaments in the joints of the spine or extremities has been extremely important in delivering my adjusting techniques.
TAC: Who influenced the development of the Ring Dinger adjustment?
G.J: Russell Janson, DC, a fellow Palmer graduate, first did the decompression adjustment on me in Austin, Texas, in 1981.1 had a compression injury to the thoracolumbar spine back in high school, which created chronic lower thoracic and upper lumbar pain that did not respond to side posture adjusting or any other adjustments given to me by a variety of other DCs.
Dr. Jansen did not call it the Ring Dinger® at the time in 1981, but he called it a pull adjustment, delivering a similar Y-axis adjustment that I have now perfected over the past 40 years of my career as a licensed chiropractor. I was sore at first (72 hours), but a week later, the chronic pain I had in my lower thoracic, upper lumbar was gone, so I bought his practice and began doing the Y-axis adjustment, which is now known as the Ring Dinger®.
I nicknamed the procedure the Ring Dinger® in 1986 when I was charting SOAP notes and didn’t want to write “nonsurgical manual spinal neural decompression adjustment on the Y-axis.” So, instead, I would write RD in my notes to know exactly what I had done. I described it as the Ring Dinger® after the striker game where one hits the plate with a sledgehammer that goes up to the top and rings the bell, i.e., the Ring Dinger® because I ring the bell every time I do this adjustment. People were having a hard time remembering “nonsurgical manual spinal neural decompression on the Y-axis,” but Ring Dinger® stuck. So I got a federal trademark on the term Ring Dinger® and Team Ring Dinger®, which describes healthcare practitioners I have trained to do the Johnson Technique X, Y, and Z-axes adjustments, including the Ring Dinger® technique.
“The bottom line is that I love this profession and want to impact it for the best interest of the patients we serve...”
TAC: Have you received backlash from other chiropractors or health professionals for performing this type of adjustment?
G.J: At first, when I started doing YouTube videos, many of my colleagues (DCs) accused me of using the Ring Dinger® just to get YouTube views, calling it a “gimmick” and thinking it was dangerous to do full spine adjustments like the Ring Dinger® provides. Now, a lot of DCs have personally come to be adjusted and found out that it was definitely not a “gimmick,” often commenting that it was the most effective adjustment they had ever had.
I taught over 20 licensed DCs in 2020 and 2021 to do this adjustment, and every one of them who learned the technique and purchased our Ring Dinger® table has seen patient outcomes improve and many new patients coming to their practices to get the Ring Dinger® adjustment. I have been working on getting scientific research on the procedure for five years and cannot disclose what is going on with that because it would violate research protocols, invalidating any research projects we are doing or contemplating doing in the near future. I have submitted an initial draft of a case study I did with a Ph.D. physicist who has been published by two well-known research foundations so far and many more to come once we complete these projects.
The bottom line is that I love this profession and want to impact it for the best interest of the patients we serve and continue to educate the planet about the benefits of chiropractic care via our YouTube videos. My goals are to teach as many licensed DCs to adjust on the X, Y, and Z-axes, including the Ring Dinger, helping practitioners provide adjusting services they may not be providing to their patients, and helping them earn more money by doing so.
Unfortunately, many of my colleagues who are licensed DCs are envious of the success we’ve had and somewhat jealous of my cash practice where patients pay me $100 for the Ring Dinger® and $300 for a total-body adjustment (Johnson Technique) on the X, Y, and Z-axes. I believe that many chiropractic innovators have come under scrutiny for new adjustment procedures or techniques that have been criticized or demonized for their techniques or philosophy of care. D.D. Palmer, B.J. Palmer, Jay Clay Thompson, Clarence Gonstead, to name a few. I practice using the model of the vertebral subluxation complex affecting neuroplasticity of the brain and nervous system, which has been, in recent years, abandoned by some chiropractic colleges, their people get the benefits of chiropractic care by freedom students, and many licensed DCs. of choice.
Our profession, myself included, has been following the Director of Research for the New Zealand Chiropractic College Heidi Haavik’s scientific research on the subluxation complex and neuroplasticity from the college and research foundation. The art of adjusting seems to have taken a backseat in chiropractic education, teaching students about other physiological therapeutics, such as e-stim, hot packs, diathermy, or other PT modalities in the past several years. I began teaching other licensed DCs how to adjust the vertebral subluxation complexes of the spine to help our profession get back to the core art of adjusting and give patients what they want, which in my 40 years of experience is to get out of pain as quickly as possible, go back to work, spend quality time with their families, and impact their lives in good health rather than live in pain or disease. We want the profession to be on equal footing with the medical profession, i.e., a primary portal of entry to chiropractic providers with patients free to make their decisions about what type of health care they want for themselves and their families. Chiropractic is the largest nonpharmacological, nonsurgical healthcare provider in the world. Equal access and free choice, helping more.
TAC: Have you evaluated the forces going through the spine during the adjustment? Is there special testing required for the treatment?
G.J: We are in the process of gathering data on the effects of nonsurgical manual spinal neural decompression on the Y-axis adjustment, i.e., the Ring Dinger®, using different measurement criteria including biomechanical, biophysics, reaction time, forces, and other neuropsychological sequelae of the technique.
TAC: What types of patients do you treat with this method?
G.J: We utilize the Y-axis adjustment, i.e., the Ring Dinger, on patients who exhibit the vertebral subluxation complex of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine and pelvis. If they are living, breathing, and moving in gravity, they are candidates for this technique. We rule out pathology, fractures, atherosclerosis, spinal instability, Arnold Chiari malformations, etc., by doing a thorough history and examination on every patient before we deliver this adjustment. We review any X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and ultrasound imaging of the carotid and vertebral arteries that the patient has had done previously on their first visit. If I suspect pathology of atherosclerosis, I will order different diagnostic tests and review them prior to delivering any adjustment on them.
TAC: How do you describe the treatment to someone who has never had it done before?
G.J: I describe the Ring Dinger® to patients as follows: “I’m going to manually decompress your entire spine with this adjustment, moving vertebrae from the occiput, base of your skull all the way down to your sacrum, very quickly. All you have to do is keep your teeth together and don’t bite your tongue. Breathe through your nose and relax.”
TAC: How has YouTube influenced the growth of your technique?
G.J: Our unedited YouTube videos have educated many people about the benefits of chiropractic adjustment, including the Ring Dinger®, because people watch unedited videos of real patients with real problems get adjusted from the beginning to the end of a visit, and then they hear from our patients about how they did with the adjustments. We are also bringing patients to other licensed DCs around the planet who have watched and learned from our videos.
TAC: How many YouTube subscribers do you have?
G.J: We have 470,630 subscribers as of February 11, 2021.
TAC: Do you use any other social media?
G.J: We use Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln, and Reddit, but we just share our YouTube videos on those platforms because actual unedited patient treatment shows people what we do and how we do it on a variety of neuromusculoskeletal conditions we see on a daily basis.
Halapoulivaati Vaital, Offensive lineman for Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl Team wearing his Super Bowl Ring, Dr. Gregory Johnson, Dr. Matt Tuttle, and Dr. Eric Pratther
TAC: What are the risks to patients for this technique?
G.J: The risk of the Ring Dinger® has the same risk that any other adjustments would have. Soreness for up to 72 hours is the most common side effect of the procedure.
TAC: Do you do any other techniques?
G.J: I use Palmer package, BioPhysics, Thompson, Diversified, Gonstead, and extremity adjusting techniques taught at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, as well as techniques and sciences of postgraduate education seminars I have taken over the past 40 years.
TAC: Who are your professional mentors?
G.J: My main mentor is Dr. Daniel J. Murphy, who teaches at Life West Chiropractic College in Hayward, California. I have been to hundreds of hours of postgraduate seminars that Dr. Murphy has taught since 1981.
TAC: What about chiropractors? Do you have recommended requirements for practitioners?
G.J: All licensed D.C.’s who come to Dr. Johnson’s 3-day seminar has to obtain a temporary license from the Texas State Board of Chiropractic Examiners, present a letter of good conduct from their state board and be clinically proficient in all aspects of chiropractic care and practice standards of care. We teach how to take a comprehensive medical/chiropractic history, orthopedic/neurological examinations and know the indications and contraindications for adjusting the spine. They will attend a 3-day hands-on clinical post-graduate seminar at Dr. Johnson’s office in Houston performing all necessary histories and exams on Dr. Johnson before he certifies them as a Team Ring Dinger® in D.C. ensuring that they know how to safely and effectively perform the Ring son himself.
TAC: What type of chiropractor would be best suited for delivering this type of adjustment?
G.J: The chiropractor best suited for this technique is one who understands and is proficient in delivering the forces of adjustments to the spine and is licensed, of course.
TAC: How does the table you’ve created influenced your adjustment?
G.J: The new table I have designed is the culmination of 40 years of experience in delivering the Y-axis adjustment I have nicknamed the Ring Dinger®. You can learn more about our Ring Dinger table and the Hill Laboratories HAC 90 AirDrop Table on our Advanced Chiropractic Equipment LLC website, which is what I use to deliver the Johnson Technique on the X, Y, and Z-axes adjustments.
If you would like to contact Dr. Johnson you may do so at [emailprotected]. or at [emailprotected]. The ACE Phone number is (713) 859-944. Remember to visit his website www.AdvancedChiropracticEquipm...
